Floods in Odisha affect more than 250,000 people in 10 districts.

A top official in the state of Odisha said that heavy rain in the upper and lower catchment areas of the Mahanadi made the river rise and caused embankments to break. This caused floods that affected over 250,000 people in at least 1,400 villages across the state’s 10 districts.

Special Relief Commissioner P. K. Jena says that about 24,000 hectares of farmland have been cut off from the rest of the world. “Fourty of the sixty-four flood gates at the Hirakud Dam are open… Although it appears like the worst of the floods is behind us, we are still closely monitoring the situation. We have stationed a total of 44 fire crews, together with 18 ODRAF and NDRF teams, for rescue operations, according to Jena.

Over 700 boarding students were saved after their school in the Cuttack district was cut off. In the districts of Sambalpur, Subarnapur, Boudh, Cuttack, Khurda, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, and Puri, officials said that floodwaters were pouring over bridges and flooding communities and agricultural areas.

Since Baghamari is on the route from Khordha to Bolangir, there were delays because of the floods. Due to the collapse of a bridge between Bangalaguda and Lendiri Maliguda, traffic between Rayagada and Koraput was slowed down.

On August 19, a low pressure system is likely to form over the north-west Bay of Bengal off the coast of Odisha. Heavy rain is expected in the state because of this. The flood situation in the state could get worse by the weekend, according to officials. They also said that there will be no school on Wednesday and Thursday in the districts of Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, and Nayagarh.

For the next week, government workers in Cuttack, Puri, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Nayagarh, Khurda, Angul, Boudh, Sonepur, and Sambalpur will not be able to take any time off.